The Bird Said

Remember that scene in Pirates of The Caribbean when the parrot speaks? Well here is my fourth bird I’ve Taxiied, a Green Cheeked Conure! Doesn’t he look like he belongs sitting on a Pirate’s shoulder or hat? I was very tempted to give this Conure a wooden peg leg or an eye patch, arrr! But since I’m still practicing my skills in Taxidermy I think I’ll wait to get creative.

Green Cheeked Conures are gutsy, they’re a big bird personality living in a small birds body they say. They’re also an intelligent parrot and can easily be taught tricks. The parrot is native to the forests of South America and can live up to thirty years!

Taxiing this bird went pretty smoothly. I didn’t realize though until I started working with the thawed bird that its beautiful wings had been clipped sadly. So I decided I’d pose him holding his wings loosely at his sides hiding its clipped primary feathers. When making the body form for the parrot I made a point this time to shorten the neck foam. I think his neck came out a lot better than my past birds! I do think the body form overall could have been a bit longer. When I was sewing him up I ran out of body form towards the tail and I should have remade the form now that I think about it. Anatomically speaking from the side view its back looks too flat. The glass eyes came out better than I’ve had yet! When I was skinning it the eyelids and lashes stayed intact. I find it difficult to keep the delicate lashes and lids in one piece.

After sewing him it was time to groom and position him for drying. I tied some cotton thread around him to hold his wings in place while he dried for a week. I also put an extra wire under his tail for support that inserted through his cloaca and into the wood wool form inside the bird. I knew I planned to mount him on a branch so I used a wooden dowel rod and some pins to dry his feet in the proper shape.

I ended up mounting the Conure on an interesting parched bush I found while hiking. It had twisting details near the root and the overall shape of it I stood out to me. Also, it sits steady on a flat surface, yay! I drilled two small holes for the wire from the birds feet to slip through and dabbed some glue on for good measure. O yeah, I was sure to pop the branch in the freezer for a week to kill any pests that might harm the bird before mounting as well.